More background on Ghost's world...

One of the themes that comes up a lot, naturally, is the healer lore of Ghost's world. After all, that is part of what he does, as a witch. Some of his tools are familiar to us, and some are not so far from reality.

The gods' light Ghost uses is a medical laser, hand-held, and with multiple settings. It can be used as a self-cauterizing scalpel, as well as to cauterize open wounds, but this device can also close wounds and knit the skin. That latter function would come in handy instead of stitches or surgical staples, right?

The Seeker's kiss is a transdermal hypodermic. The medication is loaded into refillable cartridges, and then injected through the skin without needles.

The Seeker's box that the Witch uses is a portable blood chemistry analyzer. A drop of blood is taken and the device can check for abnormalities. Miniaturization is always a hot trend, so I could see this one becoming viable.

Obviously, centrifuges are used routinely and would be nothing new to us, nor would the witchglass, a combination solar panel and battery that the witches use to recharge their devices.

Herbal medicines have given birth to so many modern medicines that it should not be far fetched at all to see Ghost and other healers using them. Traditionally, witches have been seen as wise women, herbalists who could cure illnesses, birth babies, and perform minor surgeries. However, the witchsisters of Ghost's world, Ghost included, see themselves as having another important role.

Knowledge is power, and the witches are custodians of a great deal of knowledge gleaned from the ruins of the fallen cities. While they are no more eager than anyone else to return to that form of society, they are wise enough to want to preserve the best of it. It sets them apart, and often sets them at odds with the godsmen and elders, but the witches fulfill that role of lorekeeper without apology. 

Worlds and world building...

If you've read Ghost's Sight, or if you've peeked ahead and checked out the excerpt from Ghost's Dilemma on the preorder page at Torquere, you may have noticed that their world is close to, but not quite Earth. World building is probably one of the most enjoyable and most frustrating parts of writing science fiction and fantasy.

In this instance, I didn't want the world to be unfamiliar, but I also didn't want to use the idea of Earth in the future. Not that it's a bad idea, mind you, but I like taking that step sideways and altering things subtly. In this case, it's a post-apocalyptic world where people have come to terms with the changes, and gone on to rebuild a society markedly different from before. In order to make this world come alive, I need to know all the niggling little details about it, even if I never actually explain it in so many words in the books.

The world has a year that lasts 320 days, divided into ten moons that are thirty-two days in length. Each moon consists of four quarter-moons of eight days each. A day has twenty hours, and they mark high sun (midday) and high moon (midnight) as we do.

Like we do, they name the days, in their case in honor of the Eight, their gods: Fatherday, Ladyday, Hunterday, Farmerday, Moonday, Seaday, Farday, and Lastday. Lastday is considered a very unlucky day to transact business, or to be joined as mates.

There are four major holidays marking the turn of the seasons, very important in a society that depends on farming and hunting. They celebrate Harvesttide, Deepwinter, Renewal, and Highsummer, usually with a communal feast.

So, it's close enough that most readers won't have trouble following without a lot of exposition, but still just that little bit different. I know I actually enjoy getting to learn a new society and culture, and I'd hope my readers enjoy that, too.

Release Day!

Hi!

I'm bouncing up and down here like a little kid, because today is the day that Ghost's Dilemma is being released!

So first, let me indulge in some shameless promotion here, because I can:

***New M/M Fantasy Romance*** 

Ghost's Dilemma by Morwen Navarre 

Release date: February 4, 2015

"I'm leaving my village in a crisis and walking out on my alpha and mate. I won't be forgiven."

A fierce male witch is torn from his protective lover's bed... to face down a deadly threat. A spellbinding tale of devotion and love.

Buy it!
Torquere Press http://goo.gl/Ngn2xU
Amazon http://goo.gl/Qf7k4r
Goodreads http://goo.gl/aaXfkB

Ghost's Sight (Book 1) on sale for a limited time http://goo.gl/w1WDRL

Launch Party! 

Feb 5 http://goo.gl/UzyNkn
***GIVEAWAYS***
Raffle#1 Win an ecopy of Ghost's Dilemma http://goo.gl/0LubX9
Raffle#2 Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card http://goo.gl/3ZXAZC

Excerpt http://goo.gl/z8IElx

Have I squealed enough?

The truth is I thought Ghost's Sight was a standalone novella, a sweet little story that I wrote because the lovely PT Walden said I could do it. I submitted it, and was beyond thrilled to have it accepted for publication, but I still really thought I was done with Ghost and Gerry.

Characters tend to take a different view sometimes, and they were no exception. Ghost and Gerry wanted to share more of their journeys, and so there I was in November 2013, writing their story for my NaNoWriMo submission. What surprised me was how happy some readers were to find out that there would be a second book. Most likely, there will be at least a third. I'm already getting prodded by the pair of them.

But now I'm curious. I know what excites me as a reader when I find a book that's becoming a series, but what is it that hooks you, either as a reader or as a writer?

More shameless self-promotion...

***New M/M Fantasy Romance*** 

Ghost's Dilemma by Morwen Navarre 

Release date: February 4, 2015

"I'm leaving my village in a crisis and walking out on my alpha and mate. I won't be forgiven."

A fierce male witch is torn from his protective lover's bed... to face down a deadly threat. A spellbinding tale of devotion and love.

Preorder
Torquere Press http://goo.gl/Ngn2xU
Amazon http://goo.gl/Qf7k4r
Goodreads http://goo.gl/aaXfkB

Ghost's Sight (Book 1) on sale for a limited time http://goo.gl/w1WDRL

Launch Party Feb 5 http://goo.gl/UzyNkn
***GIVEAWAYS***
Raffle#1 Win an ecopy of Ghost's Dilemma http://goo.gl/0LubX9
Raffle#2 Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card http://goo.gl/3ZXAZC

Excerpt http://goo.gl/z8IElx

(Can you tell I'm getting excited?)

Launch Day Giveaways and Author Jitters...

It's almost Launch Day for Ghost's Dilemma!

Lots to share:

We have a Fan Page on Facebook:  Ghost's Sight

And we're having a Launch Party, with giveaways! I'd love to see you all there.

Here's the scoop on all the goodies:

***New M/M Fantasy Romance*** Ghost's Dilemma February 4, 2015
"I'm leaving my village in a crisis and walking out on my alpha and mate. I won't be forgiven."
A fierce male witch is torn from his protective lover's bed to face down a deadly threat. A spellbinding tale of devotion and love.
Goodreads http://goo.gl/aaXfkB
***Now available for pre-order on Torquere Books http://goo.gl/Ngn2xU***
You're Invited to the Launch Party Feb 5 http://goo.gl/UzyNkn
Pinterest http://goo.gl/z10TuP
Win an ecopy or a $25 Gift Card
Raffle#1 http://goo.gl/0LubX9
Raffle#2 http://goo.gl/3ZXAZC

Now, back to our regularly scheduled rambling. Yes, I have jitters! You'd think I'd be better about this, but I want people to read my book, and love my characters. I do, of course, but they're mine. I should love them.

But after three rounds of edits, two rounds of proofreading, and looking over a galley, I'm still wondering if I should have tweaked this, or massaged that. I still wonder if I got it right. My books are my children, and like any parent, I have trouble letting them out the door without fussing over a scarf, or slipping them some extra cash.

My book's ready. It's me that's not.

My reading challenge...

I've been challenged! My goal is to read at least 150 books before next January 15, because the very lovely Joanna Talbot knows that good readers make better writers. I'm off to a good start, too! I've loaded up my Kindle, and I'm raring to read.

Now mind you, I'll be sneaking in my reading in between proofreading for my own upcoming release, and I have a confession to make. It's an absolute treat to read someone else's work right now. The more I read my own work, the more I cringe and want to tweak things. It's a monumental effort not to change things. Big things. Huge, sweeping changes, and lots of them.

But this late in the game, that would be a disaster. My amazing editor, Nicole, has pored over my mess, and poked at all the sloppy grammar, chronology slips and logic fails. The proofreaders have outdone themselves, and found typos and missing words that my brain helpfully fixed for me when I was reading. There's no way I'm going to ruin all that hard work, not now. Now it's time to hike up the big author shimapan and stop tweaking.

And this is why this challenge is coming at such a good time. I have an excuse to send back the proof without trying to tweak one more time. I can get lost in someone else's words again, and I can't wait.

Between holidays...

Somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas lies chaos.

Don't get me wrong. I love a good bout of chaos. Nothing shakes up a book like having the universe upended, and as a life lesson, chaos can't be beat. We learn to think on our feet, to adapt to a new reality on the fly.

But bloody buggering hells... enough!

I've had a love/hate relationship with holidays for a while now, starting when my dad announced, two days before Christmas '08, that he was moving to Texas. Right after the New Year. Now, I can understand wanting to get away from the cold and snow up here in the Northeast, but my heart broke at the thought of my dad being 2,000 miles away, instead of a 2-hour drive from me.

Then there was Thanksgiving '12, when my stepmom called as I was in the middle of prepping the turkey. Note to all of you: do not answer the phone if your hand is up a turkey's ass. It's going to be someone telling you something you don't want to hear. In my case, it was hearing that my dad had end stage cancer, and was coming back home to die.

This year, I waited until the day after Thanksgiving to discover I have kidney stones, like dad before me. I've always been my dad's child, so color me unsurprised. But now the whirlwind of getting ready for the holidays includes trying to get an appointment with a doctor that's less than two and a half months away (really!) and listening for the sound of my dad's laughter.

Maybe I'll skip holidays from now on. November will be NaNo and December will be Winter Solstice. Much better! But then I'd miss the turkey, and the family, and the traditional chaos...